In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the character of the Scottish king has a moment when he gives a soliloquy. In the final act of the play, as Macbeth prepares for battle, he receives word that his queen has died. On hearing this, Macbeth speaks his inner thoughts out-loud so the audience knows what he is thinking. On reflection, Macbeth speaks theses words:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
The story of Macbeth is a tragic story where Shakespeare deals with a topic of what life is. At the death of his queen, Macbeth speaks of life as a “brief candle”, as a “walking shadow,” “a poor player.” And he ends this soliloquy with the words, that life, “Signifying nothing.” This is very reminiscent to Solomon’s writing in the book of Ecclesiastes when he writes, “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless (ch. 1:2).’”
Despair, hurt, agony, depression, it’s all around us. The pain of the world, and the uncertainly that this world brings with it, makes it very easy for us to spiral down into a thought of, life is all meaningless and it signifies nothing in the end.
And so what do we do? We get as much as we can. We try to build the best possible lives for ourselves. In fact, our society tells us, go big or go home, take what you can and give nothing back, look out for yourself. We saw this in the opening days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Store shelfs were empty, because if this is a life or death situation, then my life means more than someone else’s. I have to get mine, before you get yours.
Yet the story of Easter is the exact opposite of all that our world views this life to be. In the life of Jesus and in his resurrection, everything is flipped on its head. We seek after the things of this world, because we don’t realize that what were’ actually after is all found in Jesus.
In the Book of John, Jesus makes seven statements that are referred to as the “I am” statements. Its seven declarations of who Jesus is, and how he fulfills our deepest desires. I want to briefly share with you those seven “I am” statements.
In John 6:35, “Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”
Our need to have our physical needs met is satisfied in Jesus. What that means is that Jesus cares for us, he created us and knows that we need food and water to survive. We might not get an abundance of it, so that we can gorge ourselves, but God will provide what we need when we need it. In the Old Testament God would give the Israelite people enough quail and bread to keep them going for the day. Jesus is the bread of life and cares about our physical needs.
The second “I am” statement is found two chapters later in John 8:12. It reads, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”
The darkness of people’s actions, the lies that people tell, the corruption we see in our jobs, relationships and government, all these can weigh on us. And we might think that we have to participate in them, but Jesus’ being the light speaks to God’s desire that we walk in truth. That he will expose the things that are in darkness to the world. That no sin will go un-dealt with. So when others build their lives in the dark, with a foundation of lies, Jesus rises above and calls his people to lives of truth in the light.
The next statements come back to back. The fourth comes from John 10:7, where Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” The fifth coming right after that, in verse 11 where Jesus states, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Both of these speak to our need to be protected, and guided. Why do people gravitate to coaches or mentors? Why do people seek to build financial security? It’s because we seek protection and guidance in our lives. We want to be safe, we want to be secured, we want to know how to deal with the things around us. Jesus tells us that he is the protection and guidance we need. And when we trust in him, we will be able to go through the fires of any situation. Just like three young Jewish men were able to, when a king told them to bow down, and instead they walked into a burning furnace.
The sixth “I am” statement comes in chapter 11, verse 25, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die…”
Jesus stood at a friends gravesite. People were crying, the friends sisters were there weeping, with one saying, “…if you had been here, my brother would not have died (v.21).” It is there in that moment that we see our own fear of death. The one thing that all humanity has in common, is that we all end up in the grave. Yet, Jesus combats that fear, because he is greater than death. And so facing his own death, a disciple of Jesus named Stephen looked up to heaven and asked God to forgive those who were about to kill him.
The last “I am” statement is found four chapters over in John 15, verse 5. Jesus says this, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
This is where we see it all come together. We see life and it looks meaningless. That’s because we are not finding the true meaning of life which is only found in Jesus.
We look at life and try to get whatever we can out of it, because we don’t know where true satisfaction can be found. We don’t know the true meaning of life. Jesus is the turn meaning of life, and we can only be satisfied when we must pursue him. Only in Jesus can we be satisfied.
As people were walking way from Jesus, he turned to his closes disciples and asked them if they were going to leave to? But Peter said this to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69).”
This is what Easter means, it’s a call away from the meaninglessness of this world, into the Jesus who is the meaning of this life.
Easter is a call away from trying to get whatever we can from this life, and into the satisfaction that only Jesus can provide.
Easter is not just a nice day to pick up eggs, get a free breakfast, and eat some chocolate. It’s a day when Jesus proved that only in him there is life. When he walked out of that tomb, he showed us that only in him can we be fulfilled.
So today, if you do know Jesus as your personal Savior, if you’re running in this life and it feels meaningless, I want to tell you that in Jesus your meaning is found. If you trying take and get as much as you can before the end, I want to tell you that in Jesus all your hopes, dreams, and desires are fulfilled.
All it takes is a recognization that there is a separation between you and him. That separation is what drives the meaninglessness and desire to take, it’s called sin. It’s our desire to be god, instead of recognizing that only Jesus is God.
But not just recognize that we have sin that separates us from Jesus, but that Jesus took our sin on himself at the cross. See sin leads to true death, death that’s eternal, but Jesus died in our place to change the course of our lives, and all we have to do is accept it. We put our trust in Jesus as our Savior, and from this day forward we follow him.
We seek him to be our bread of life. We seek him to be our light in the dark. We seek him to be gate and shepherd so that we can be protected and guided. We seek him to be the resurrection of our lives so that death has no power over us. And we seek him to be our vine, so that from him we can be fulfilled.
All it takes is just a simple prayer of repentance and acceptance. Something like this, “God I know I have sinned, and that sin has separated me from you and the true life that you have. I thank you that Jesus died for me and took my sin away. I accept the free gift through the cross that you call salvation. Now lead me for the rest of my life to fully understand what it means to be in your life. Amen”
To those of you who have put your trust into Jesus as your Savior, I want to challenge you this week to read the “I am” statements and seek to understand Jesus’ life a little more in each of them.
Let us fully embrace the eternal life that Jesus has for us, and move away from the decaying life this world has. Jesus’ life is the only one worth living, let us live it, starting this Resurrection day. Amen.
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